Today is the Super Duper Blue Red Full Eclipse Partial Eclipse Moon, depending on where you may be viewing from.

Three years ago this day was my last day of working and I retired after 46 years of full-time work. I've enjoyed every single moment of my retirement since then - three years and hoping for twenty more, we'll see how things go...

February and March can be cruel months in southeastern Wisconsin where I live. January itself was nutso here weather-wise, with two separate thaws. I don't ever remember getting two January thaws before, and many years none happened at all.

Before I know it I'll be headed to Las Vegas to visit my friends and celebrate some sunshine and warm weather, and see a show (I always try to squeeze one in). Meanwhile, I am continuing, slowly, to make this smaller retirement ranch into a home that makes me smile in every room. I still have lots to do, including major painting projects. I keep putting them off. Seems at 66 I'm not so keen on painting as I was at 36. Gee, I wonder why...

Jan

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Attacking the Family Room for the Sake of a New Desk

Ohmygoddess! I got up early this morning (5:30 a.m. ) and after coffee and cookie and checking the news and email, I cleaned out the drawers and shelves of the entertainment center and started shoving furniture around in the family room. It's still a disaster area that needs to be finished, including removing the rest of the wall paper, spackling damaged drywall, priming, painting, installing the chair rail and new wallpaper. I only started that project a year ago March. Geez Louise! I will finish it -- but first...

All this activity was spurred by the purchase of a new desk that I got on close-out online at Kohl's and was delivered two days ago -- a $299 desk for $99 and free shipping. I like $200 off! It's the Sonoma life + style Mason desk. The desk is discontinued evidently, although Kohl's is still offering the same style end-table and console table, at least for the present. Here's a pic of my new desk:

I've been online window shopping months for a new desk for the family room. I've been using my old console table as a desk, and it's both too narrow and too short, but tucked behind the sofa the way it used to be, I made do, raising it up to a good height with books under the legs that no one could see unless they were standing behind the sofa and looking down at the floor underneath the console table. Raised up by the books, I could scootch my chair right up to the table and my legs slid underneath comfortably when I was working.

Comfort and practicality dictated that I buy a new desk despite my current budget constraints (medical bills not covered by insurance have blasted my budget to smithereens). I wanted something that wasn't "bulky" looking but had an adequate work surface, as well as a finish and style that would blend in with all of the finishes and styles residing in harmony at Maison Newton. I also wanted something that didn't look CHEAP. You know what I mean. I thought about buying a second-hand traditionally-styled pedestal desk and refinishing it, possibly by 2032, but realistically everything on Craig's List around here is overpriced and I have no means of hauling a purchase home from a resale shop or rummage sale, or even if I bought something off Craig's List, except on my back. That ain't happening! Thus, the many months of looking (off and on) for a desk online that would be delivered to my doorstep.

So happy! I'm going to put my new desk together, but first I wanted to rearrange the family room to conform to the "vision" inside my brain and also make space to work on the floor to assemble the desk! After much heaving and shoving and pushing, I got the very heavy queen size sleeper sofa positioned in front of the window. A few days ago I took the shelves off the mondo bookcases and heaved them into position in the corner, at 90 degrees to each other. Ideally I would like them situated behind the area where the desk is going, but they are too wide to be centered on the back wall because of an heating vent that throws everything off kilter. Eventually I would like to replace them with something narrower (the current bookcases are 30.5" wide each) and shallower (15-3/4" deep!) Narrower bookcases will give me the option of centering them on the back wall despite that inconvenient heating vent!

Eventually I want to replace the furniture, the console table, and that 1980's entertainment center, ugh! But I must make do with what I have for the foreseeable future. Onward and upward! Right now everything is a mess, but these pics give you a very good idea of what I'm dealing with, and the amount of work I have to accomplish before this room is back to something resembling normal:

Yeah, those bookcases are painted ugly! But with the shelves in and loaded with my tons of tomes they look presentable - and besides, they "go" with the console table and the entertainment center...

Fortunately you cannot see the bright brass colored "mod" trim on the door and drawers of the entertainment center :) But now, sitting here at the dinette table looking across the family room at it, it still appeals. Perhaps there is something wrong with my eyesight??? Or sense of style? Probably both... More later, darlings. Since starting and stopping the above post several times I've hiked to the Walgreens and Pick 'n Save and back, done more shovelling, did the dishes, and ate lunch. Now it times to get back to work.

2017 Christmas Tree

2016 Christmas Tree

2014 Christmas Mantle/Mantel

2014 Front Porch

About Me

I'm one of the founders of Goddesschess, which went online May 6, 1999. I earned an under-graduate degree in history and economics going to college part-time nights, weekends and summer school while working full-time, and went on to earn a post-graduate degree (J.D.) I love the challenge of research, and spend my spare time reading and writing about my favorite subjects, travelling and working in my gardens. My family and my friends are most important in my life. For the second half of my life, I'm focusing on "doable" things to help local chess initiatives, starting in my own home town. And I'm experiencing a sort of personal "Renaissance" that is leaving me rather breathless...